Warriors’ Ognjen Kuzmic Looks To Impress at #NBASummerLeague As A Viable NBA Backup Center (Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account via @diamond83 Twitter account)
With the NBA’s Vegas summer league fast approaching, Golden State Warriors staff and player hopefuls are gearing up for the yearly competition, which usually features at least a few familiar Warrior faces. Headlining the Warriors summer league roster this year are two players who spent some time playing for both Golden State and their D-League affiliate in Santa Cruz.
Nemanja Nedovic is a 6’3″ point guard from Serbia, entering his second year in the NBA. He will be looking to impress new coach Steve Kerr, who will be coaching the team in Vegas this year. Also suiting up for this year’s summer squad is 7-foot center Ognjen Kuzmic, also from Serbia.
Kuzmic played in 21 games last year for Golden State. While he never really saw valuable minutes at the NBA level, he is looking to make a splash in Vegas this year in hopes of earning a bigger role come the regular season.
In the 28 games he played in for the Santa Cruz Warriors last season, he averaged only 6.8 points, but also an impressive 11.7 rebounds, as well as 1.6 blocks, all while shooting nearly 50% from the field.
Kuzmic will look to build off the success he had playing in Santa Cruz last year. With the retirement of backup center Jermaine O’Neal (and no indications thus far that O’Neal will return for a 19th season) and the health of Festus Ezeli still in question — Diamond Leung reported yesterday that Ezeli would miss Summer League due to shin inflammation — this could be a perfect time for Kuzmic to prove he can be an everyday backup NBA center.
“Kuz is just a different animal. He works so hard and is getting better every single day. There were spectacular plays surrounding him,” Santa Cruz Warriors head coach, and summer league assistant coach Casey Hill said in a phone interview with LetGoWarriors.com yesterday, “One specific one was last game with Santa Cruz, he blocked the guy’s shot, takes the loose ball down the court, coast to coast, to dunk it.”
That play can be found as the Number One-ranked play on the Santa Cruz Warriors top 10 plays of the season:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7c907oHvK4&w=560&h=315]“He has been working very hard on his skill and getting better at his craft,” Coach Hill said about Kuzmic. “It has been heck of an opportunity to work with him last couple of months. I’m looking forward to him getting better.”
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